Making Budweiser Great Again

Budweiser has revealed a new design for its beer cans. At first glance you probably won’t notice much of a difference, but it has, in fact, renamed to ‘America’ for the summer. Along with the bold and timely name-swap, the new design includes satirical copy changes; ‘The World Renowned’ line now reads ‘Land of the Free.’ ‘Anheuser-Busch, Inc.’ has been replaced with ‘Liberty & Justice For All.’ “We thought nothing was more iconic than Budweiser and nothing was more iconic than America,” says Tosh Hall, creative director at the can’s branding firm JKR.

We asked all-American MB Copy Director Michael Meyer if he thought this was branding genius or – something else:

“The line between satire and reality has never been as blurry as it is today. To be fair, Budweiser has no responsibilities or obligations beyond selling as much beer as possible, so it can play to whatever common denominator it wants. Budweiser is brilliant because it didn’t overthink the challenge of becoming America’s beer. It’s selling American Exceptionalism in a can. In America’s current political climate, the worst thing you can be perceived as is UnAmerican, so how could you possibly say no to a beer called America? You can’t, so just drink it, stupid.”